Humans can smell fear - and it's contagious

'These findings are contrary to the commonly accepted assumption'

(NBC News) Humans can smell fear and disgust, and the emotions are contagious, according to a new study.

The findings, published Nov. 5 in the journal Psychological Science, suggest that humans communicate via smell just like other animals.

“These findings are contrary to the commonly accepted assumption that human communication runs exclusively via language or visual channels,” write Gün Semin and colleagues from Utrecht University in the Netherlands.